Spanish Bombs

I'm going to have to get the hang of the artillery system. I seem to excel at getting it to land precisely on my own lines. Really enjoyed it last night, though, and looking forward to getting back to it after work today. A bit bleary eyed today, and I'm not sure my colleagues would understand that I was up too late trying to preserve Barkmann's corner.

Or it just might be today....

Thanks MikeyD - I meant Ost battalion troops of course. I'm assuming that not all the Ost troops in Normandy were from Georgia, that some were Estonian or Armenian or whatever. I was just surprised that they were labeled with so much detail in the demo.

I didn't see this in another thread, so I'm asking it here. Just playing the demo now, and its growing on me every time I replay it, and even in those times between the replays when I'm thinking about how to improve. 1) when using Shermans to blow a hole in the bocage, is there any way to keep them from using them up their MG ammo while area firing? I know that the AI recognizes that I'm area targeting the bocage somehow, since it stops firing when the breach happens. It would be great if I could keep from using up the .50 cal ammo in particular which appears to come in pretty limited supply. 2) If I get my infantry too close to the Shermans when they are breaching bocage, it seems like they cower, and I may even have caused a friendly area-fire casualty. I assume this is intentional and I just didn't miss some incoming German fire somewhere? 3) Similarly, I was trying to use the Shermans to fire smoke into a hole in the bocage just ahead of a squad of infantry running through the breach. The infantry, which I don't believe was in LOS of any Germans, took a couple of casualties right when the smoke round hit. Do tank smoke rounds cause friendly fire casualties if targeted too close to infantry? Finally, a non-Sherman question. If we have Ostfront (Georgian) troops, does that mean that there will be Ostfront troops from other areas as well? OK, that one I don't really care about aside from being surprised that the origin of the troops was so particularized.

I've been playing around with this also. It works, but it does use up a lot of valuable HE rounds pretty quickly. I don't suppose that there is a way to keep them from using up their MG ammo while doing this?

The announcement for Sergei's 2000-2011 video says "upcoming "Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy" (May 2011)." So I suppose the bad news is that it won't be out tomorrow, but the good news is that May starts Sunday...

Fond memories, indeed! I recall having to submit an application 'essay' for ROW I just to get in, and the horrific night scenario from that tournament, plus much more.

Are the guys in the second shot dead or taking cover?

Given the above mentioned regarding the accuracy of the exposed part of a tank, will tanks be able to "dig in"? Not that I used it too often in CMx1, but at least it was there.

Oh no, it came up. Pictures were shown and he guaranteed that it was going to be included in the third CM:BN module to give the Allies a fighting chance against the Maus and E-100s.

Very appreciative of the sneak peek also. For the record, I think we all understood that there were no flamethrowers this time around, but are very enthusiastic about seeing them down the road. Maybe that was just because Tim was talking about the Churchill Crocodile being his favorite tank...

OK, just to flesh out some of this from my perspective: We looked at a pair of Rune scenarios, and as to be expected they were very big, with lots of units. I missed the first part of the preview in which the scenario with more armor units was featured, so my moments of game play were more infantry-centric. With that in mind, however, I was pretty much floored by some of the graphics on one of the AFVs in particular that was in the second scenario. There was also a point where a large group of infantry was scaling a stone wall that was visually striking - it felt and looked very real - as did just about everything we saw yesterday. Even just watching a bunch of guys walk down the road, and realizing that they had different helmets, was mesmerizing. As far as gameplay goes, I never did much with CM:SF or the demos, though I'm going to be downloading one of them soon to give myself as good a chance as is possible to hit the ground running when CM:BN comes out. Seriously, that would be a much better way to get a sense of what playing CM:BN will be like more than I could ever type here based upon what I saw yesterday. The artillery system itself will bring a learning curve, though as Hermitage noted above there is no doubt that it is better and more realistic than CMx1. And more fun to play with. One of Steve's quotes that I try to keep in mind even now having played CMx1 games for so long was something along the lines of "we like to reward the observant player". In that light, while the new interface will take some time to learn, the knowledge that many of us already have, be it from CMx1 or elsewhere, will certainly come in handy. For example, at one point we heard a MG 42 open up and the whole room identified it immediately by sound, at which point we tracked it down and watched the impact it was having on the receiving end. I sense that bocage is going to be a huge element in CM:BN, this was pretty evident yesterday. Figuring ways around it, or through it, and trying to prevent the same, are going to be central to many scenarios (as well it should be). Finally, thinking back to the CM:BO days, I recall being frustrated the first few (OK, dozen) times I played the game. I had a lot to learn historically about the weapons and units of the era, certainly, but the controls and rules and the exceptions to them took some getting used to. Fortunately, I never waivered in trying to put it all together - everything I had read about the game and even my own halting introduction convinced me that it was worth the effort. Its now a decade later and I'm still a daily player of CMBB and CMAK - sticking with it paid off big-time. I'm sure there will be moments of frustration while scaling the learning-curve for CM:BN also, but everything I've read about the improvements with CM:SF and everything we've seen posted here about CM:BN , and everything I saw yesterday has convinced me that the pay off will be enormous. One note in advance of the other previews happening shortly - if there was any downside to yesterday it was that we ran out of time. As I mentioned above, Rune made a couple of his scenarios especially for us, but the second one I saw the most of was battalion-level, and we were just getting to the good stuff by the time my clock ran out for me (I had the feeling Rune would have let us stay later, gracious host that he is). Things were also slowed down by the constant discussion, and Rune never hesitated to give us some insight into what was going into the game, plus there were some technical difficulties on a second computer. Perhaps a smaller scenario at the other previews will give the attendees a better sense of the full range of the game. Otherwise, I'm just going to have to wait until the game is released to finish the scenario we started yesterday...

The host definitely set the pace with regard to the beer-drinking, but then he didn't have to drive home. Thanks to Rune for the hospitality and it was very nice to meet everyone. I will post some longer thoughts tomorrow, but my first impressions are very positive. Some of the visuals were better than I ever imagined they would be, and the game play looks very promising, though the interface will take some getting used to for those of us who didn't play CMSF. As we discussed this afternoon, the best way to get ready for CM:BN might be to play one of the existing CMX2 demos, which is something I'm going to do in the near future.

I'm in, though I'll be tardy (per previous emails).

My kids' basketball games don't wrap up until 2-ish, but I'll be headed to casa de Rune thereafter. I remember the neighborhood, but will email for the address - I hope to be there by 2:30 or so. Looking forward to it!

You know, we were just discussing this sort of thing in another thread... Barring some drastic real life conflict, I'll definitely be there.

Rune has also been the host of several 'preview' get-togethers in the Chicago area that predate the release of Battlefront games. Here's hoping that this 'tradition' is continued for the newest iteration.

Excellent. Indirect fire on-board infantry guns, was that already disclosed?

The only problem with watching a video like that is that I'm constantly trying to rotate the view with the mouse or click on a unit to get unit details, and my brain doesn't understand why its not working...

Are all of those Shermans targeted for CM:Normandy, or are some of them being prepared now for future modules? That seems like a lot of variety for a relatively discreet time period for the first release, and I left my "Sherman/West Front introduction date" cheat sheet at home today.

Is this really a viable criminal enterprise? This hacking attempt was clearly flawed for the reasons, among others, that Steve cited above. I've always thought that any type of 'hostage-taking' that required some sort of payment that could be electronically traced would inevitably be thwarted or easily thwart-able. Or were they demanding suitcases full of cash like some sort of South American hostage deal?

Agreed. Harris also wrote Enigma, a WW2 'mystery' set around Bletchley Park which was also a good read.

I was a little dubious of this whole messiah thing, but since they went ahead and renamed Omaha Beach as "Obama Beach", I guess I was wrong.

Can't let this topic pass without mentioning the encased meat superstore in Chicago: HotDougs.com Its usually about an hour drive to get there for me, often an hour long wait outside, and always worth it. I try to beat the crowd by getting there at opening (10:30 AM is not too early for sausage!). The "Today's Specials" link has great stuff every day, and the regular menu is outstanding also - gotta love the Thuringer!

A retroactive thank you to Redwolf, I was running into the same problem. I can't say that I quite understand what was happening, but if I start CM (by right clicking) via 'run as administrator'. it works.